Surgical face masks and hoods combined to form complete head coverings have been proposed as a means for preventing contamination of hospital sterile environment by containment of bacteria exhaled by the wearer and bacteria carried by the wearer's head, particularly on the hair. These prior head coverings have been made of cloth or disposable, light weight, nonwoven or cellulosic materials. While the face masks are, in most cases, made of material having bacteria barrier properties, apparently it is generally believed that the larger pored structure of non-woven or cellulosic materials which are opaque and perfectly adequate to restrain the wearer's hair and prevent it from coming into direct contact with any other object in the operating room, are also effective to block the passage of bacteria from the wearer's head into the atmosphere. To some extent the head coverings of the prior art do limit the passage of bacteria into the environment but, as should be clear, these materials which have large pores and are not bacteria filter materials, as such, permit the passage of bacteria from the wearer's head into the material. Such bacteria may pass through the pores of the material into the atmosphere or onto another object the wearer happens to brush against. Members of the sterile team frequently bump heads as they crowd around a patient on an operating table looking into a wound or as they perform their duties and bacteria may be passed from one member to another as a result of such head contact.